The iPhone 4S has been reportedly having major battery issues. While I have yet to actually meet or talk to a person with this issue face-to-face, I have no doubts that it does exist. Apple has just released an update to its mobile operating system, iOS 5.0.1, to fix battery issues for iPhone 4S users who were complaining about it.
Some people, however, are still having issues with battery. There is a mystery as to what could possibly be causing it in the iPhone 4S, since the battery is “technically” a better battery, and hardly anybody is having problems on the iPhone 4. You’d think there could be something isolating the iPhone 4S a bit more than the other models, but what could it be?
Although location services, and other power-hungry aspects of mobile connectivity do play their part, there is one particular, well-known feature on the iPhone 4S that the other models don’t have: Siri Assistant.
Siri Assistant, for those who aren’t familiar or haven’t been staying up to date, is Apple’s new amazing speech-action software that is built into iOS 5, and is available for only the iPhone 4S. The software is capable of providing exceptional results to voice requests, and has been doing a very nice job at understanding what people really mean to say, rather than just turning their voice into straight text, and searching for it.
However, it may also be contributing to the battery issues.
In the photo above, you’ll see the white iPhone 4S. The phone has a giant sensor on the top near the receiver (where you put your ear), which is the proximity sensor. The proximity sensor is basically responsible for telling the iPhone when your face is being held up close to the device, which turns off the display so that your cheek doesn’t dial anything. The difference here, however, is that with Siri on the iPhone 4S, the proximity sensor is actually “pinging in overtime.”
When you hold up your iPhone, you likely don’t see what I’m talking about. Hold it up to a webcam, as shown above, and you’ll see it right away. There is a rapid and repeating flash of a little light inside that sensor, attempting to gather information all the time on whether your face is close to the phone or not. This action is something Siri likes, because you can hold the phone to your ear to speak into it as if you are on a phone call (in case you are someplace noisy).
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I havent really noticed this on previous generations of the iPhone, but I’m not confident this is different from the previous models. If this is something that the iPhone 4S is doing, which doesn’t take place on previous models, it could explain a little bit of the power issues that are going on. I’m wondering if that constant pinging signal is draining enough battery to make users upset?
The problem has been mostly (or perhaps exclusively) reported with Verizon iPhones. This phone happens to be a Verizon iPhone as well. If you have a Verizon iPhone, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Does turning Siri off completely solve your issue? Maybe just turning off the setting that allows you to talk into it when up to your ear? – There is a toggle for that.
Comment below and correct me if I’m missing something. I’d love to hear from you.
Here’s a video explaining the difference, from iFixit on YouTube.
httpvh://youtube.com/watch?v=blMzWkHhFFw
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